Tool for use with X claw hammer in removal of nails

ABSTRACT

A tool is provided for use in combination with a conventional claw hammer. The tool comprises an integral tool body having a sleeve for surrounding the cylindrical striker section of the hammer head. A support portion extends outwardly from the sleeve generally at right angles to the longitudinal axis of the sleeve and carries at its remote end a surface engaging curved portion for resting against the surface from which a nail is to be pulled and for acting as a fulcrum holding the hammer away from the surface to improve the direction of pull on a nail grasped by the claw of the claw hammer. The surface engaging portion at the end of the tool has an apex at one end including a sharpened claw for engaging a fully embedded nail. At the opposed end is provided an anvil surface which can be struck by the hammer to drive the apex into position to grasp a nail. The tool has two steps therefore firstly being used to grasp an embedded nail and secondly being used with the hammer head engaged into the receptacle as an additional fulcrum of the hammer.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] This invention relates to a tool for use with a claw hammer inthe removal of nails from a surface.

[0002] The conventional claw hammer is of course very well known andcomprises a shank and a generally T-shaped hammer head having a shankengaging portion defined by a leg of the T-shape, a striker body on oneside of the T-shape having an end striker face generally at right anglesto a striker axis which is at right angles to the shank. On the otherside of the T-shape is provided a claw body including a pair of clawfingers projecting away from the shank and defining a slot therebetweenfor receiving and grasping a nail head. The claw hammer is convenientfor pulling nails in that the claw fingers engaged on either side of thenail and then the shank of hammer is pulled in a plane at right anglesto the surface are the so that the upper surface of the hammer headsacts as a fulcrum to pull the nail out of the surface into which it isengaged. One problem which arises with the pulling of nails in this wayis that where the nail is relatively long for example in framing nails,the fulcrum is insufficiently spaced from the surface in which the nailis embedded so that when the head of the nail is beyond about half inchto one inch from the surface the nail begins to bend as the pull fromthe claw is in the wrong direction. This makes pulling the nailextremely inconvenient and requires significantly more force since theforce is not in the required direction. In addition this causes bendingof the nails as they are pulled so that they are then unsuitable forfurther use.

[0003] Some users overcome this problem by providing a block of woodwhich is placed on top of the surface within which the nail is embeddedso that the fulcrum surface of the hammer engages against a block ofwood thus restoring the force on the nail to approximately the rightdirection. However the block of wood is somewhat inconvenient in that itmust be carefully held and in that it must be carried around and thusmade available at the required time.

[0004] At the present time no tool is commercially available forreplacing this simple block of wood.

[0005] One proposal for a tool suitable for this purpose was made inU.S. Pat. No. 551,993 from December 1895 by Norton et al. In thisarrangement a curved body is attached to the head of the hammer byengagement with the claw portion on one side, the striker body on theopposed side and with a loop which wraps over and screw-fastens to theshank engaging portion. This device is therefore highly inconvenient toattach and has found little or no favor in the trade so that itcertainly is not commercially available at the present time.

[0006] A search carried out in relation to the present invention hasalso revealed U.S. Pat. No. 110,176 from December 1870 by Ward and U.S.Pat. No. 830,072 from September 1906 by Houlihan. Both of these devicesare nail extractors which can engage a nail head and can be grasped bythe claw section of a claw hammer to assist in pulling the nail.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0007] It is one object of the present invention to provide a tool whichcan be used with a claw hammer for pulling nails.

[0008] According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided acombination of a claw hammer and a tool for, use therewith in removingnails, the claw hammer comprising a shank and a generally T-shapedhammer head having a shank engaging portion defining a leg of theT-shape and engagement with the shank, a striker body on one side of theT-shape having an end striker face generally at right angles to astriker axis which is at right angles to the shank and a peripheralsurface surrounding the striker axis, and a claw body on a side of saidT-shape opposite to said striker body including a pair of claw fingersprojecting away from the shank defining a slot therebetween forreceiving and grasping a nail head of a nail in a surface for removal,the tool comprising an integral tool body having a receptacle portion, asupport portion and a service engaging portion, the receptacle portiondefining a sleeve shaped to receive and surround the peripheral surfaceof the striker body as a sliding fit therein so as to be supported onthe striker body by the engagement between the striker body and thesleeve, the support portion extending outwardly to one side of thereceptacle portion generally at right angles to the striker axis and aservice engaging portion being mounted on an end of the support portionremote from the receptacle portion and providing a curved fulcrumsurface for resting on the surface from which the nail is to be pulledwith the shank lying in a plane at right angles to the surface, thecurved fulcrum surface being curved in a direction to roll over thesurface as the tool is pivoted relative to the surface in—said planeabout an axis at right angles to the striker axis and to the shank.

[0009] According to the second aspect of the invention there is provideda tool for use with a claw hammer comprising a tool body having areceptacle portion defining a circular cylindrical recess having an openend face generally at right angles to a longitudinal axis of the recess,a support portion extending from the receptacle portion generally atright angles to the axis, and an engagement portion on an end of thesupport portion remote from the receptacle portion and defining a curvedfulcrum surface facing away from the receptacle portion, the curvedfulcrum surface being formed from a series of parallel straight lines atright angles to the axis with the surface being curved about an axisparallel to the straight lines and offset from the surface in adirection toward the receptacle portion, the surface extending over anarc commencing at one end and terminating at a second end both endsbeing arranged at positions spaced from said longitudinal axis, saidengagement portion having at said one end an anvil surface thereontransverse to the surface for driving the engagement portion generallylongitudinally of the surface at right angle to said series of lines,and said engagement portion having at said second end a claw memberdefined by a pair of fingers having therebetween a V-shape notch lyinggenerally in said surface for grasping a nail head between said fingers.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0010] One or more embodiments of the invention will now be described inconjunction with the accompanying drawings.

[0011]FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a tool according to thepresent invention for use with a claw hammer in extraction of nails:

[0012]FIG. 2 is an end elevational view of the tool of FIG. 1 lookingfrom the left hand side.

[0013]FIG. 3 is an end elevational view of the tool of FIG. 1 lookingfrom the right hand side.

[0014]FIG. 4 is an underside view of the tool of FIG. 1.

[0015]FIG. 5 is a side elevational view similar to that of FIG. 1showing a first step of the tool in operation in relation to a nailembedded within a surface.

[0016]FIG. 6 is a side elevational view of the tool in combination witha claw hammer in a second step of operation.

[0017]FIG. 7 is a side elevational view similar to that of FIG. 6showing a third step of operation.

[0018]FIG. 8 is a cross sectional view taken along ,the lines 8-8 ofFIG. 3.

[0019]FIG. 9 is a side elevational view of a modified embodiment.

[0020] In the drawings like characters of reference indicatecorresponding parts in the different figures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0021] Turning firstly to FIGS. 1 through 4 and 8, the tool according tothe present invention is generally indicated at 10 and includes areceptacle portion 11, a support portion 12 and a surface engagingportion 13.

[0022] The receptacle portion 11 comprises simply a sleeve defined by acircular cylindrical wall 14 and an end wall 15 closing one end of thecircular cylindrical wall and attached thereto. An opposed end of thecircular cylindrical wall is open to define an open mouth 16 into whicha striker body 17 of a hammer head can be inserted. The thickness of thewall 14 is selected simply to provide sufficient strength for thefunctions as described hereinafter and has a length in a longitudinaldirection parallel to a longitudinal axis 18 sufficient just to receivethe striker body 17 of the hammer head.

[0023] The support portion 12 comprises simply a strut integrally formedwith one side face of the cylindrical wall 14 and extending outwardlytherefrom generally at right angles thereto. The shape of the supportportion 12 is generally unimportant but for convenience of constructioncommences at a width equal to the length of the sleeve 14 and thentapers downwardly to a narrowest point and expands wider again toprovide a coupling to the surface engaging portion 13.

[0024] The surface engaging portion 13 includes an upper surface 19integrally formed with the wider lower end of the support portion so asto smoothly couple therewith. The surface engaging portion, 13, furtherincludes an undersurface 20 which constitutes a surface which engagesthe surface of the material from which the nail is to be withdrawn. Thesurface 20 is defined by a plurality of straight parallel linestransverse to the surface and at right angles to the axis 18. Thesurface however further curves around one or more axis parallel to thelines forming the surface and spaced therefrom toward the receptacleportion. This forms an arcuate surface which may be of constant arcaround a single axis or as shown particularly in FIG. 1 may vary incurvature so that the centers of curvature are different for variousdifferent points along the length of the curved surface 20.

[0025] The body thus formed between the upper surface 19 and the lowersurface 20 is therefore generally thin and elongate and is itselfgradually curved following substantially along the curvature of thesurface 20. However the body also increases in thickness from a pointedforward end 21 to a wider rearward end 22. On the surface 20 is provideda series of transverse ribs 20A defining a roughened area for graspingthe surface of the frame element from which a nail is to be withdrawn.

[0026] At the rearward end 22 is provided an anvil surface 23 which is asubstantially flat surface extending transversely to the generallongitudinal direction of the body defining the surface engagingportion. This anvil surface can be struck by a hammer thus of coursedriving the body longitudinally of its length to force the front apex 21forwardly as described hereinafter.

[0027] At the apex 21 is defined a claw portion generally indicated at24. The claw portion includes a pair of fingers 25 and 26 formingtherebetween a V-shaped slot 27. The fingers follow substantially thecurvature of the surface 20. The V-shaped slot 27 has an open mouth atthe apex 21 and itself lies in the plane of the surface 20 and tapersinwardly to a closed end 28 of the V-shaped slot for grasping a nail asthe nail head is driven along the slot by forward movement of the apex21.

[0028] As best shown in FIG. 3, the undersurface 20 in the area of theclaw portion is itself slightly V-shaped so that at the intersectionbetween the surface 20 and the slot 27 is formed a sharp cutting edgewhich can be driven into the surface around the nail to be extracted tomore effectively grasp the nail head where that nail head is alreadyembedded.

[0029] The receptacle portion 11 and particularly the sleeve 14 thereoffurther includes a threaded hole 30 passing through the wall thereof andreceiving a set screw 31 which is externally threaded so that, therotation of the screw drives the base end of the screw inwardly andoutwardly relative to the wall 14. The screw includes a slot 32 by whichit can be operated by a screwdriver. The wall further includes a recess33 which is preferably opposite to the hole 30. Thus the set screw 31can be positioned in the top of the wall 14 as best shown in FIG. 3 awayfrom the surface engaging portion 13 whereas the recess 33 can simply beformed in the wall 14 opposite to the set screw so as to define ashallow recess within the internal surface of the sleeve 14.

[0030] A claw hammer is generally indicated at 40 and is conventional innature including a shank 41. The hammer head includes a striker body 43and 44 both of which are conventional nature. The generally of a hammerhead 42. a claw section claw section includes a pair of fingers 45defining therebetween a slot for receiving a head 46 of a nail 47mounted within a surface 48. The hammer can be entirely conventional sothat the striker body is simply of circular cylindrical shape size to bereceived as a sliding fit within the sleeve 14. The hammer can then beclamped into position onto the tool by actuation of the screw 31.

[0031] Alternatively the hammer head can be modified simply by theaddition of a spring ball member 49 which is of a type that is wellknown including a simple spherical ball mounted within a recess 50 andurged outwardly by a spring 51 so as to project beyond the peripheralsurface of the striker head. The spring ball thus can be compressed toallow insertion of the striker head into the sleeve 14. However when thespring ball reaches the recess 33 it expands out of its compressedposition to engage into the recess and to assist in the frictionalpositioning of the striker body within the sleeve 14.

[0032] The operation of the tool in combination with a conventional clawhammer is shown in FIGS. 5, 6 and 7.

[0033] In FIG. 5 where a nail 52 mounted within a surface 53 is deeplyembedded and hence difficult to grasp by the conventional claw of thehammer, the tool 10 can be removed from the hammer and the claw portionthereof engaged onto the surface adjacent the nail 52. Hammer blows canthen be applied to the anvil surface 23 to drive the apex 21 into thesurface at either side of the head 52. This causes the claw portion tograsp the nail and to commence pulling the nail head from the surface53. As soon as the nail head is effectively grasped by the claw portion,with the tool remaining in location holding the nail head, the hammer isinverted and the striker body of the hammer is inserted into thereceptacle portion as shown in FIG. 6. The hammer can then be used as alever to pull on the tool to effect a first extent of withdrawal of thenail 52 from the surface 53. As the hammer 40 is pivoted in thecounterclockwise direction as shown in FIG. 6, the position of thefulcrum defined across the surface 20 gradually moves away from the nailto a position where the pulling direction is no longer vertically awayfrom the surface 53. When this occurs the tool is removed from the nailand the hammer with the tool attached is moved into the position shownin FIG. 7 where the claw of the hammer grasps the nail 47 and thesurface 20 is moved into contact with the surface 48 within the nail isembedded so that the surface engaging portion 13 acts as a fulcrum forthe movement of the hammer in the counterclockwise direction as shown.This spacing of the fulcrum away from the end of the hammer means thatthe pull on the nail is more directly vertical for a longer distance ofpull so that the nail can be pulled from the surface without thetendency to bend and without the inconvenient twisting action which isnecessary when the conventional claw hammer is used.

[0034] During the movement of the combination as shown in FIG. 7 theroughened ribs 20A on the undersurface 20 act to prevent any slipping ofthe tool on the surface 48.

[0035] The dimensions of the sleeve 14 can be selected so that the toolis designed to accommodate a particular size of hammer. It may benecessary therefore for different sizes of the tool to be manufacturedto accommodate the different sizes of hammers available. In thealternative, the tool may be supplied with a number of sleeves forexample of a stiff rubber material which can be inserted into the sleeve14 to accommodate different size hammer heads.

[0036] In a further alternative the roughening ribs 20A may be omittedfor use on finishing surfaces to prevent damage to the actual surface ofthe material. In framing minor surface damage of this type isunimportant. In finishing it would be undesirable and hence the ribs caneither be omitted or in an alternative (not shown) the ribs can becovered by a resilient pad which attaches to the tool.

[0037] In a further alternative arrangement shown in FIG. 9, theconnecting portion 112 is moved to the rear face 15. This increases thespacing between the front face 15A and a front edge 122 of theconnecting portion 112 and places the rear face 15, the rear face of theconnecting portion and the pounding face 23 in the common plane at rightangles to the axis of the sleeve. Also the spacing between the bottomedge 123 of the sleeve and the top edge 124 of the claw is increased andarranged to be of the order of 1.5 inches allowing a 2×4 to be insertedtherebetween to be grasped by the tool for straightening other leveragefunction thereon. The locking screw 32 is at the top and the ball 33 onone side face.

[0038] Since various modifications can be made in my invention ashereinbefore described, and many apparently widely different embodimentsof same made within the spirit and scope of the claims without departingfrom such spirit and scope, it is intended that all matter contained inthe accompanying specification shall be interpreted as illustrative onlyand not in a limiting sense.

1. A combination of a claw hammer and a tool for use therewith inremoving nails comprising: a claw hammer having: a shank and a generallyT-shaped hammer head having a shank engaging portion defining a leg ofthe T-shape and in engagement with the shank; a striker body on one sideof the T-shape having an end striker face generally at right angles toportion and an engaging a striker axis which is at right angles to theshank and a peripheral surface surrounding the striker axis; and a clawbody on a side of said T-shape opposite to said striker body including apair of claw fingers projecting away from the shank defining a slottherebetween for receiving and grasping a nail head of a nail in asurface for removal; and a tool having: an integral tool body having areceptacle portion; a support portion; the receptacle portion defining asleeve shaped to receive and surround the peripheral surface of thestriker body as a sliding fit therein so as to be supported on thestriker body by the engagement between the striker body and the sleeve;the support portion extending outwardly to one side of the receptacleportion generally at right angles to the striker axis and the engagingportion being mounted on an end of the support portion remote from thereceptacle portion and providing a curved fulcrum surface for resting onan element from which the nail is to be pulled with the shank lying in aplane at right angles to the element; the curved fulcrum surface beingcurved in a direction to roll over the element as the tool is pivotedrelative to the element in said plane about an axis at right angles tothe striker axis and to the shank.
 2. The combination according to claimI wherein the surface engaging portion extends over an arc both ends ofwhich are spaced from the receptacle portion.
 3. The combinationaccording to claim 2 wherein the surface engaging portion includes ananvil surface at one end and a claw portion at an opposed end, said clawportion including a pair of claw fingers projecting away from the anvilsurface and defining a slot therebetween for receiving and grasping anail head of a nail.
 4. The combination according to claim 1 wherein thecurved fulcrum surface includes a portion thereof having transverseridges thereon for providing improved engagement with said element. 5.The combination according to claim 1 wherein the receptacle portiondefines a closed end of said sleeve at one end and an open mouth of thesleeve at an opposed end.
 6. The combination according to claim 5wherein the closed end includes an opening for release of air oninsertion of said striker body into the sleeve.
 7. The combinationaccording to claim 1 wherein the striker body and the sleeve are bothcircular cylindrical in shape.
 8. The combination according to claim 1wherein the receptacle portion includes fastening means for fasteningthe sleeve to the striker body.
 9. The combination according to claim 8wherein the fastening means comprises a spring ball member mounted o thestriker body and a recess in an inner surface of the sleeve forreceiving a spring ball as a snap fastening therein.
 10. The combinationaccording to claim 8 wherein the fastening means comprises a set screwthreadedly mounted on the sleeve and rotatable for engagement with theperipheral surface of the striker body.
 11. The combination according toclaim 3 wherein the surfaces of the fingers of the claw portion lying inthe curved surface of the engaging portion define a V-shape intransverse cross section.
 12. A tool for use with a claw hammercomprising: a tool body having a receptacle portion defining circularcylindrical recess having an open end face generally at right angles toa longitudinal axis of the recess, a support portion extending from thereceptacle portion generally at right angles to the axis, and anengagement portion on an end of the support portion remote from thereceptacle portion and defining a curved fulcrum surface facing awayfrom the receptacle portion; the curved fulcrum surface being formedfrom a series of parallel straight lines at right angles to the axiswith the surface being curved about an axis parallel to the straightlines and offset from the surface in a direction toward the receptacleportion; the surface extending over an arc commencing at one end andterminating at a second end both ends being arranged at positions spacedfrom said longitudinal axis; said engagement portion having at said oneend an anvil surface thereon transverse to the surface for driving theengagement portion generally longitudinally of the surface at rightangle to said series of lines; and said engagement portion having atsaid second end a claw member defined by a pair of fingers havingtherebetween a v-shape notch lying generally in said surface forgrasping a nail head between said fingers.
 13. The tool according toclaim 12 wherein the curved fulcrum surface includes a portion thereofhaving transverse ridges thereon for providing improved engagement withsaid surface.
 14. The tool according to claim 12 wherein the receptacleportion defines a closed end of said sleeve at one end and an open mouthof the sleeve at an opposed end.
 15. The tool according to claim 14wherein the closed end includes an opening for release of air oninsertion of said striker body into the sleeve.
 16. The tool accordingto claim 12 wherein the receptacle portion includes fastening means forfastening the sleeve to the striker body.
 17. The tool according toclaim 16 wherein the fastening means comprises a spring ball membermounted on the striker body and a recess in an inner surface of thesleeve for receiving a spring ball as a snap fastening therein.
 18. Thetool according to claim 16 wherein the fastening means comprises a setscrew threadedly mounted on the sleeve.
 19. The tool according to claim12 wherein the surfaces of the fingers of the claw portion lying in thecurved surface of the surface engaging portion define a V-shape intransverse cross section.